Taken from the carefully restored master tapes, audio tracks featuring only the incidental music are added to each DVD release of the classic series whenever enough material survives in the archives. Sixties and Seventies stories tended to be scored by freelance musicians, whose personal collections would have to be plundered (and the composers paid) for any releases of their music; yet later music - especially those scores penned by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop - reside in full within the BBC's own libraries, and so long as the music is synched along to the visuals (ie, not presented on it's own - as was The Five Doctors:Special Edition soundtrack in November 1999), no extra fee is owed to the composers, and an isolated soundtrack becomes an affordable and welcome bonus feature.

Below are a list of the releases that have featured isolated soundtracks, with any notes worth mentioning. Ayres explained at the RT forum in January 2009 that the Doctor Who DVDs are produced to BBC broadcast standards, meaning that their dynamic range is squeezed slightly to match the original episodes, with a nominal 10dB of 'headroom' (making the tracks relatively quiet) and compression to around one tenth of their original file size. It should be pointed out, therefore, that the audio quality of these soundtracks, although digital, is not as good as their respective (or prospective!) releases on CD.

Isolated Soundtracks

Doctor Who and the Silurians by Cary Blyton (January 2008)

suites of rerecorded music from this serial had previously been released on CD; the survival of Blyton's original score was a huge surprise.

presented in mono, as per the original master tapes; these had been treated with a pseudo-stereo effect for release on CD (as Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 3: The Leisure Hive) in 2002. By the time the DVD was assembled, Mark Ayres had located the original make-up tapes and was able to produce a genuine stereo mix for the 5.1 soundtrack.

presented in mono; three short stereo cues had been released on the LP Doctor Who: The Music in 1983, re-packaged as Earthshock in 1992. The US-only CD The Best of Doctor Who - Volume 1 edited the three tracks into one, titled simply 'The Keeper of Traken'. Some of this music was used in The Curse of Fatal Death (1999).

Logopolis by Paddy Kingsland (BBCDVD#1331(B), January 2007)

much demanded by Doctor Who music collectors, this score was proposed for release on a mid-90s Silva Screen CD and would have formed part of the series of 'Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop' BBC Music CDs had the range continued in the early 2000s. Some of the music had secretly featured in The Curse of Fatal Death (1999)

Castrovalva by Paddy Kingsland (BBCDVD#1331(C), January 2007)

selected highlights from the score had been released on cassette by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, titled Corridor of Eternity (1990). A bootleg CD of the same material was often packaged and sold at conventions.

The Visitation by Paddy Kingsland (BBCDVD#1329, January 2004)

Earthshock by Malcolm Clarke (BBCDVD#1153, August 2003)

presented in mono; stereo excerpts from the soundtrack had previously been released on the BBC Records release Doctor Who: The Music, and restored by Mark Ayres for the Silva Screen CD Earthshock.

Arc of Infinity by Roger Limb (August 2007)

The Five Doctors by Peter Howell (November 1999/March 2008)

the original 1999 DVD featured a separate menu where the stereo soundtrack from the SE could be played in 8 suites. Unfortunately, mastering problems resulted in the music playing 4% slower than it should have done - a noticeable drop in both pitch and rhythm - and though this was corrected for the US release (WHV E1596, September 2001) that version missed off the final suite.

the 25th Anniversary DVD boasted an isolated soundtrack of the original mono music on Disc 1 and the stereo version as an isolated soundtrack on Disc 2

the master tapes for this score were in poor condition, often featuring break-through sounds such as click-tracks and dialogue. With limited time and expenses the isolated soundtrack was given only minimal remastering; Mark Ayres has said that he may be able to remove these elements should a CD release of the score ever happen.

Resurrection of the Daleks by Malcolm Clarke (BBCDVD#1100, December 2002)

presented in mono; a stereo suite from music from this soundtrack had been released back in 1985 on the BBC Records LP Doctor Who: The Music II, remastered by Mark Ayres for the Silva Screen CD The Five Doctors.

several short 'sting' cues were found to be missing from the Radiophonic Workshop archives.

The Mark of the Rani by Jonathan Gibbs (BBCDVD#2224, September 2006)

original composer John Lewis's unfinished score to Part One was included as an additional extra.

The Two Doctors by Peter Howell (BBCDVD#1213, September 2003)

Revelation of the Daleks by Roger Limb (BBCDVD1357, July 2005)

Time and the Rani by Keff McCulloch (September 2010)There was no isolated soundtrack feature on this disc, though the Photo Gallery featured a suite of stereo incidental music cues (8:16), as follows:

1m1/1m2 (0:24)
1m3 (0:19), continuing into:
1m4 (0:10), continuing into:
Unknown cue, possibly unused (0:35)
1m13 (0:40)
1m5 (0:34 cue, looped to play twice)
1m6 (0:35 excerpt from the original 1:16 cue) - includes sound effects
1m19 (0:35 excerpt from the original 0:42 cue)
3m19 (0:44). The ending of this cue was slightly different on the TV soundtrack.
3m10 ('Future Pleasure') (0:44 of original 3:19 track) - only 1:30 was used on-screen, though the full track appeared on The 25th Anniversary Album in 1988, sped-up by around 10%. This is an excerpt from the album version.
3m21 ('The Brain' i) (0:45) - includes sound effects. This cue appeared on The 25th Anniversary Album.
3m22 ('The Brain' ii) (1:19 excerpt from original 1:30 cue) - includes sound effects. This cue appeared on The 25th Anniversary Album.
3m10 ('Future Pleasure') (a further excerpt of 1:21) - includes sound effects

Paradise Towers by Keff McCulloch (July 2011)There was no isolated soundtrack feature on this disc, though the Photo Gallery featured a suite of stereo incidental music cues (4:35), as follows:

3m11 (0:06)
1m2 ('Towers El Paradiso') (0:15 excerpt from the original 2:40 cue) - this cue appeared in full on The 25th Anniversary Album in 1988
3m1 (0:25)
1m7 (0:52)
1m8 (0:22 excerpt from the original 0:55 cue), continuing into:
4m16 ('The Making of Pex') (0:39 excerpt from the original 1:22 cue) - this cue appeared in full on The 25th Anniversary Album1m10 (0:28) - partially mixed with sound effects
1m14 (0:36 excerpt from the original 0:52 cue)
3m4 (0:30 excerpt from the original 1:03 cue)
Part Two cue 14 (0:20 excerpt from the original 0:28 cue)
4m17 ('Goodbye Doctor') (0:15 excerpt from the original 0:38 cue) - this had appeared on The 25th Anniversary Album, where it continued into the closing theme; on the Photo Gallery the cue played to the end.

Delta and the Bannermen by Keff McCulloch (June 2009)There was no isolated soundtrack feature on this disc, though the Photo Gallery featured a suite of stereo incidental music cues (8:21), as follows:

Dragonfire by Dominic Glynn (May 2012)The DVD featured a full isolated score, presenting the music in mono (as-broadcast), although it had been recorded and mixed in stereo. 17 minutes of stereo music had previously been released on cassette (as part of Black Light: The Doctor Who Music of Dominic Glynn in 1990), and the DVD Photo Gallery included a unique suite of stereo cues mixed with sound effects (4:48), as follows:

Remembrance of the Daleks by Keff McCulloch (BBCDVD#1040, February 2001/November 2007)

the BBC master tapes could not be located, so the score was sourced from Keff McCulloch's own minidiscs. Includes two unused cues (in Parts Three and Four) and slightly extended versions of numerous other pieces.

interestingly, due to the film being converted for British formats, the isolated soundtrack plays at a slower speed (and thus a lower pitch) than the American CD. So does the film itself.

some short cues were taken from the Music+Effects track (distributed with the main feature for international dubbing) and feature background sound effects. More details can be found here.

Audio-Only DVD Features

Several DVDs, whilst not featuring a full isolated soundtrack, included snatches of previously-unreleased incidental music on their animated menus.

Jonathan Gibbs' Radiophonic Workshop score for Vengeance on Varos (BBCDVD#1044, October 2001) was considered too short for a full isolated music track, so pieces from the score were instead integrated into the menus.

When the Photo Galleries were ammended to play as videos, soundtrack music was often used in the background, meaning that a short suite of music could be included for stories that did not feature a full isolated soundtrack. These have included The Invasion, Time-Flight, Black Orchid, Four to Doomsday, Timelash and The Trial of a Time Lord; Pyramids of Mars (BBCDVD#1350, March 2004) included excerpts from Heathcliff Blair's rerecording of Dudley Simpson's music, taken from the 1993 Silva Screen CD Pyramids of Mars.

Murray Gold's yet-to-be-released music from The Parting of the Ways was used as backing music for the menus on the Complete First Series boxed set (BBCDVD#1770, November 2005) - though the pieces appear to have been taken from the music and effects track, and also include background sound effects (from breathing to footsteps and hovering Daleks)!